But, instead of answering, the youth blushed "celestial rosy red, love's proper hue"—and that so deeply, that even through the gloom the baron saw the glow on the cheek.
"What! a youth—and to blush!" said he, eyeing his visiter keenly; "it cannot be; and yet who should it be but——"
"You have not forgotten 'Johnny Armstrong's Good-night,'" whispered the youth.
"Nor that voice," added the baron, saluting his pretended brother. "What good spirit has brought you here, my dear Lady Margaret?"
"I have brought you the means of escape: you can disguise yourself in my cloak and hat; the jailer will not know the difference in this dismal light, or rather darkness; the sentinel at the end of the court is Charlie o'Kirkhouse, who may be sent as your guide and guard to the gate; the cloak and hat will deceive the rest, whose recollection is doubtless by this time faint enough to favour the attempt."
"It must not be; for, even though no evil were to result from the attempt, I would not have you subjected to the rudeness of menials."
"Say not so, my lord, for nobody will dare to injure me. I never made a request before, and I may never make another."
"Nay—not so, I hope; but it cannot be that I should meanly leave you in my stead. Forgive me, my dear lady, if I refuse to avail myself of the means of escape which you propose; but deem me not so selfish as to value my own freedom above yours—as to skulk in disguise from these walls, and leave you here exposed to the insults of the angry underlings deputed by a suspicious enemy to watch my every movement."
"Would that I could prevail upon you, my dear lord," said Lady Margaret, affectionately, "to make the attempt; and would that I could prevail upon you to cast aside your schemes of vengeance, to devote your energies to the cause of your country, and to hear in your halls the sounds of merriment rather than the wailings of sorrow over friends whose lives have been lost in feudal warfare."
"Would that I could prevail upon myself," rejoined Lord Maxwell, "and be content to pass my years in peace and in happiness, with none save one to care for. But I forget myself: these things cannot come to pass."